AMN / Guwahati,
Defending champions Maharashtra continued to rule the Khelo India Youth Games, adding five more gold to their tally, led by their weightlifters, on Thursday. Second-placed Haryana kept snapping at their heels, picking up five gold of their own, including two at the shooting range.
Maharashtra have a clear lead in terms of total medals (125) but their 33 gold may not be unbreachable, especially as the Games enter the last leg in which Haryana usually come into their own. Haryana have 28 gold at the moment and will hope to reclaim the mantle of champions that they had lost last year.
Delhi could not muster any gold on the day, allowing Uttar Pradesh to claim sole possession of the third place with 18 gold. They are now fourth on the table, with 17 gold, while Kerala took the next place with 13 gold.
The Karnataka cycling quartet of Danamma Chichakha, Sahana Kudiganur, Keerthi Ramaswamy and Meghna Gugad won the Girls Under-21 team pursuit gold, fetching the only yellow medal for a southern state.
Haryana’s 13-year-old Shiva Narwal, who finished claimed the Sub-Juniors gold and the third place in the Juniors at the National Championships in Bhopal last month, was their top star as he won the Boys Under-17 10m air pistol gold.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ cyclists Celestina and David Beckham completed their respective individual double crowns. They took home eight medals, including five gold. Cycling is the only sport from which the Island athletes won medals, but Andaman & Nicobar are placed higher than states like Uttarakhand, Odisha and Jharkhand.
The cycling competition, held for the first time in three editions of Khelo India Games, saw Maharashtra blaze a trail of glory with 20 medals, nine of them gold. Manipur and Karnataka were the other teams with double-digit medals.
Maharashtra picked up three of the four gold medals on offer at the Bhogeswari Phukanani Indoor Stadium in Dispur. With total lifts of 134kg Haryana’s Komal Kohar took the Girls Under-21 45kg class title, a division that didn’t have any lifter from Maharashtra.
Mumbai’s Soumya Dalvi defended her Girls Under-17 40kg class weightlifting gold after enduring a brief doubt. Her team-mate from Sangli, Aarati Tatgunti, challenged her to lift at least 66kg on her last clean and jerk attempt to win gold which she easily did.
Assam’s Chitra Chetia won the bronze medal in the Girls Under-17 40kg class, thanks as much to some smart thinking by her coach Alakesh Barua as to a tactical mistake by his Uttar Pradesh counterpart. After she had failed to lift 56kg on her second attempt in clean and jerk, Chitra’s coach asked for the bar to be loaded with 58kg.
Instead of responding to the threat posed by the revised weight that would mean that the Assam girl could leapfrog to third place ahead of his ward, the Uttar Pradesh coach let Shivani Yadav go ahead and attempt 56kg. She did succeed at lifting that weight for a total of 102kg but she was left hoping that the home girl would not pick 58kg.
The wrestling competition got under way with Greco-Roman bouts being fought on Thursday. Haryana and Maharashtra shared the first two gold medals, winning the 55kg and 60kg classes respectively.
Maharashtra’s Saddam was impressive as he emerged on top in all four 60kg bouts in the Nordic tournament format while Pradeep won the 55kg gold after his Haryana team-mate Shrikant and he had finished with three wins each since he had won the bout between them. Uttar Pradesh’sPankaj took the third gold, claiming a comfortable win over Maharashtra’s Vivek in the final.
The results (all finals):
Cycling
Boys under-21
Keirin: 1. Mayur Pawar (Maharashtra); 2. Abhishek Kashid (Maharashtra); 3. Ashwini Patil (Maharashtra).
Team Pursuit (4000m): Punjab (Vishvajeet Singh, Pawanpreet Singh, Naman Kapil and Anandpreet Singh) 4:45.086 beat Haryana (Anil Manglaw, Jitender Ahlawat, Vivek Kumar and Nitin) 4:49.580. Bronze medal ride-off: Karnataka (Venkappa Kengalaguti, Sachin Ranjanagi, Ganesh Kudiganur and Raju Bati) 4:49.800 beat Rajasthan (Bhagirath, Prem Moond, Manish Kumar and Manoj Jat) 4:50.419.
Girls under-21
Keirin: 1. Triyasha Paul (West Bengal); 2. Mayuri Lute (Maharashtra); 3. Shushikala Agashe (Maharashtra).
Team Pursuit (4000m): Karnataka (Danamma Chichakha, Sahana Kudiganur, Keerthi Ramaswamy and Meghna Gugad) 5:34.298; beat Assam (Joyshree Gogoi, Chayanika Gogoi, Gongutri Bordoloi and Bristi Kongkona Gogoi) 5:38.543. Bronze medal ride-off: Maharashtra (Shushikala Aghashe, Vaishnavi Gabhane, Madhura Waykar and Anjali Ranawade) 5:41.791 beat Kerala (KJ Kalyani, AP Saisree, RK Arya Vinod and M Anakha) 6:14.101.
Boys under-17
Sprint (200m): 1. David Beckham E (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) 10.891 seconds; 2. Kh. Rahul Singh (Manipur) 11.406; 3. Mangesh Takmoge (Maharashtra) 11.931.
Girls under-17
Sprint (200m): 1. Celestina (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) 12.928 seconds; 2. Kh. Prerna Devi (Manipur) 13.141; 3. Anureet Goraya (Punjab) 14.076.
Shooting:
Boys under-21
10m Air Pistol: 1. Naveen Singh (Haryana) 246.1 points; 2. Arpit Tomar (Uttar Pradesh) 237.0; 3. Adil Khan (Uttar Pradesh) 216.7.
Boys under-17
10m Air Pistol: 1. Shiva Narwal (Haryana) 243.2 points; 2. Samrat Rana (Haryana) 242.2; 3. Navdeep Jatrana (Rajasthan) 216.6.
Weightlifting
Girls under-21
45kg class: 1. Komal Kohar (Haryana) 134kg (59, 75); 2. Techi Nadam (Arunachal Pradesh) 133 (58, 75); 3. PS Sufna Jasmin (Kerala) 130 (57, 73).
Boys under-17
49kg class: 1. Mukund Santosh Aher (Maharashtra) 184kg (82kg snatch, 102kg clean & jerk); 2. Uday Anil Mahajan (Maharashtra) 176 (81, 95); 3. Nameirakpam Tomshou Meetri (Manipur) 173 (78, 95).
Girls under-17
40kg class: 1. Soumya Sunil Dalvi (Maharashtra) 116kg (50kg – snatch, 66kg clean & jerk); 2. Aarati Raghavendra Tatgunti (Maharashtra) 115 (50, 65); 3. Chitra Prova Chetia (Assam) 103 (45, 58).
45kg class: 1. Harshada Shard Garud (Maharashtra) 139kg (62, 77); 2. Gyaneshwari Yadav (Chhattisgarh)137 (61, 76); 3. Radha Soni (Uttar Pradesh) 125 (55, 70).
Wrestling
Greco-Roman (Boys under-21)
51kg: Pankaj (Uttar Pradesh) beat Vivek (Maharashtra); Bronze medals: Ram (Punjab) and Harikesh (Haryana).
55kg class: 1. Pradeep (Haryana); 2 Shrikant (Haryana); 3. Pravin (Maharashtra).
60kg class: 1. Saddam (Maharashtra); 2. Juber (Rajasthan); 3. Vijay (Haryana).